There has been some debate about which platform represents the sweet spot for Android? Is it best suited as a smart-phone? Can Android dominate the netbook market? Maybe it can excel in the mid-market as a flexible and capable touch-tablet?
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lozz
14 years 21 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago
Who cares?
The iPad is a lump of non-free hard/software that would even exceed Steve Ballmer's wildest dreams. Leave the thing to Steve Jobs and his flunkies and keep Free Software free.
knowing-card
14 years 21 weeks 6 days 55 min ago
What if someone who bought an iPad finds freedom?
If someone buys an iPad and then discovers free software should they be able to run free software on it? Or do you think they should just throw it away?
lozz
14 years 21 weeks 1 day 6 hours ago
Learn by mistakes
Strange question. You simply have to learn by your mistakes.
I recall, many years ago, purchasing some sort of word processor. It saved everything in a proprietary format that nothing else could read, on proprietary removable media that wouldn't fit anything else. Come to think of it, it had a lot in common with the iPad.
Being completely useless, I ended up giving it to some kids to play word processors on.
Having learned a valuable, if expensive, lesson, I went on to get a "proper " computer. With Win 3.11 on it. Thus, I learned a second valuable, if expensive, lesson.
Life's like that.
No, I don't suggest iPad users, who have discovered Free Software, should waste them by simply throwing them away.
You could coat one in concrete and use it to anchor your boat, or just throw it into the water and hope you stun a trout for your breakfast, or hang it on the wall and tell your friends that it's one of Andy Wahol's "junk" series, or....
DeadSuperHero
14 years 21 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago
Fair Points...
However, I consider the use case to be not unlike that of a person with Windows on their PC. If they want to switch to Free Software, well...that's a software issue, not a hardware one. So, if they wanted to put Free Software on an iPad because they already had one, loved the hardware, but hated Apple's mobile OS and DRM...well, why not find a way to put Free Software on it?
Maybe not necessarily Android (unless it's Cyanogen, but I digress), but a lightweight, touchscreen-friendly GNU/Linux system would be great on a device of that size. And if it can utilize Free Software drivers, more power to the user.
Of course, if you don't own one, I don't see the point in BUYING one strictly to do that. Ultimately, what I really think needs to happen is that someone ought to build a tablet prototype that already works with Free Software and Open Standards, and parallels the iPad in the fun a person can have with it. I don't think we're quite there yet, but we're close.
knowing-card
14 years 21 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago
I assume you are trying to be funny
As DeadSuperHero has pointed out, there is no reason someone can't switch to free software and keep the hardware. I myself have a macbook pro on which I now have Ubuntu installed. It's a great piece of hardware and Ubuntu runs very well on it. However, when I get a new machine, I'll be looking to buy something from a company that is more supportive of FOSS.
PS. I covered the apple symbol with an Ubuntu sticker.
lozz
14 years 21 weeks 8 hours 9 min ago
Ha, you bought one!
Well, after blowing $xxx+ on Stevie's latest, and not so, greatest, it's hard to tell you what to do next. You could fit all I know about Macs on the back of a beer coaster.
I hear that they don't have any USB ports, so that limits what you can do with the thing.
Presumably, its got a cd/dvd slot, so you could try booting it with a "live" disk, if its BIOS will let you. See if you can do anything to change the BIOS options, if it won't. Search to see if anyone else has reported successfully getting Free Software onto one.
However, even if you do get Free Software running, that's just the start of your troubles over. Getting information onto it, and off it, are the next hurdles.
Rupert Murdoch loves the way they are tied down, so the actual hardware, itself, must be designed to prevent you getting anything back off of it too easily. This would rule out its ability to do much more than simply consume content, which is why Rupert loves the thing.
That's why I mentioned the dud word processor I had, years ago. To be any earthly use, you must be able to easily get information onto it, then work on that information in the way you intend, then get that information back off of it in some sane sort of manner.
If it can't do those basic things it doesn't deserve the name of being called a computer.
My advice would be to stick the iPad on eBay and see what you can get for it, then check out some of these tablet devices that are getting posted, here. They either come with Free Software, or they are easy to get Free Software onto, they are designed so you can get information onto, and back off of them, easily, and they are proper working computers, not DRM-laden toys for the terminally uncreative.
We don't criticise Ballmer and Jobs here just because we don't like the look of their spooky faces - their expensive garbage really doesn't work properly and was never intended to do so.
knowing-card
14 years 21 weeks 1 hour 49 min ago
No I didn't buy an iPad
As I said I have a mac book pro. I didn't buy it either - it was a gift. But I quickly removed Mac OS X from it and replaced it with Ubuntu. Now I have great hardware and great software running on it.
Some points:
* Advising someone who has found software freedom to sell an iPad is immoral. You are advising them to knowingly profit through actions that remove another's freedom.
* If it's possible to put Android onto an iPad then, clearly, getting info on and off it isn't going to be a problem.
* Unlike buying (a license for) Mac OS, when you buy apple hardware, it is actually yours. You can do with it what you want.
* When someone mistakenly buys lemons they shouldn't throw them out because they can still make lemonade.
Look, if you want to rant about Apple, Steve Jobs or any of their products, be my guest.
However, I object to you attacking people who've bought iPads and have now discovered software freedom; I object to you telling them that they should throw the baby out with the bath water; I object to you attacking people who try to help free those mistakenly enslaved themselves by buying an iPad; and I object to you attacking articles that show iPad owners that they can have (more) freedom despite this.
lozz
14 years 20 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago
Re previous
I'm pleased to hear you didn't buy an iPad and have your mac book under proper control with Free Software. I stand behind all I have said concerning Apple Corporation and proprietary software.
DeadSuperHero
14 years 20 weeks 6 days 9 hours ago
On another note...
Can you name any multitouch-supporting tablets that can easily run Free Software with free drivers?
I've been wanting to tinker with various netbook/simplified computing frontends for GNU/Linux, and I think it would be a really fun creative endeavor, but I don't really know any specific tablets off the top of my head. Can you just help name a few that are out there?